This will be my first burn and i'm trying to coordinate travel to Burning Man. I was wondering, when on the 26th is BRC "officially" open and when on September 2nd do most goings on "officially" end? I'm coming from Pittsburgh so my plan is to fly in to Vegas (because it's cheaper than Reno or anywhere else) Rent a car, buy provisions that i didn't bring at Walmart then drive up the 9.5hrs to the event. I want to do this in a way where I can avoid having to stay in a hotel so i'm trying to fly in the night before, spend that night and next morning driving and be at BRC early AM. The end may not be so important as I am thinking about going to see the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde after as an optional extension.

Welcome Madman. I'm sure your first trip to Black Rock City will be fun.

Yes, it is cheaper to fly to Vegas vs. Reno. I'm not sure where you're flying from, but that pretty ambitious to do it ALL in one day.

The drive from Vegas to Reno is about 8 hours and then you have another 2 hour drive to BM. You can do lots of shopping in Reno instead of driving a loaded car 10 full hours. You are going to be carrying quite a bit of heavy water as well as all your camping and food supplies.

I would almost suggest paying the extra money and fly to Reno. Figure gas, time, wear and tear on you etc. and it starts to make sense save the extra 8 hours.

Take some time to read all the first timer info in my signature below. Search for what you might need and read up on everything, and if you can't find what you're looking for, feel free to ask.

I too fly in from the East Coast, and also recommend flying into Reno. The car rental fees and gas alone should eat up any airfare savings. Just doing a quick search, you're looking at a savings of around $300. Then at a minimum, you'll need one hotel night, 2 days of car rental and gas. Figure 900 miles round trip from Vegas to Reno (low estimate) at 30 mpg(high estimate) and you're looking at a minimum of say $120 of extra gas.

And that doesn't even begin to touch on the value of not arriving on playa zoned out from the long drive.

If you fly into Reno, you also have a much better chance at finding a ride share. Car rental is extremely expensive, especially when you realize you're just parking the thing for most of the time.

Also, It's easy to forget just how far north Reno really is. If you want to save on airfare, look into San Francisco. It's much closer. As is Yosemite as a post playa trip.

Last edited by VultureChow on Wed Feb 20, 2013 7:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

I know a few people who fly through Vegas, it's not only a cheaper flight but I believe much cheaper rental vehicles (not sure about cars but that's definitely the case with RV's). And of course there's always Vegas fun on your way out.

Remember when planning that your drive will take you a lot longer than you think. You could spend upwards of 8 hours in line at the gates to get in or to get out. Hopefully it's less, but logistics are what they are, plan for that and you won't be in danger of missing flights, etc. Starting and ending times has been covered here, though with the potentially long wait times it's not really possible to plan things down to the hour.

Also if I may add, the Barbie Death Village Hotel Deal will be posted here hopefully by the end of the week. We're negotiating to have the rooms at the Sands begin around $27 (up to four people in a room) and we're seeing if we can get the weekend rate lower than last year. Won't know for sure, but for a lousy $27 (give or take) having a nice night's rest, final shower, use of the ice machines (you can load up $27 worth of ice which you're going to need in any event), sauna, Jacuzzi, steam bath, swimming pool...well, it sounds like you're being penny-wise and pound-foolish. And Vulture Chow's assessment I think is also spot on. Worth thinking about for sure.

Thank you all for responding, this early out i'm still in the planning phases. This is some good advice and I plan on taking it into consideration. Here is my thinking currently. As it stands round trip from Pittsburgh to Vegas is in the 290's, while flying into Reno is in the 570's. I checked with avis and if I want to rent a car from Reno exclusively the B-man period and pay for it early it will be 334 while booking a car in reno is 430. This of course is all if I'm going solo, which as it stands, is the case. My other thinking about this is that I would intend to totally bypass reno from the south and avoid the mass of burners most likely raiding the Walmarts up there. Or having issues with there not being rental cars. I don't mind the drive as endurance, as well as a dose of being amped up because i'm going, has never been an issue for me. I've tried contacting the Pittsburgh regional, well at least to be put on their discussion list, and as of yet have heard no response. I'm thinking of finalizing these plans sometime in early March so i can save some money by booking in advance.

Dr. Pyro wrote:Also if I may add, the Barbie Death Village Hotel Deal will be posted here hopefully by the end of the week. We're negotiating to have the rooms at the Sands begin around $27 (up to four people in a room) and we're seeing if we can get the weekend rate lower than last year. Won't know for sure, but for a lousy $27 (give or take) having a nice night's rest, final shower, use of the ice machines (you can load up $27 worth of ice which you're going to need in any event), sauna, Jacuzzi, steam bath, swimming pool...well, it sounds like you're being penny-wise and pound-foolish. And Vulture Chow's assessment I think is also spot on. Worth thinking about for sure.

How do I keep tabs on this because this would be well worth it if do-able.

And to answer your question about when the event officially starts and ends. Typically the gates open midnight Sunday night. Last year they may have opened at 6 pm Sunday. Can't remember if that was official or not. Maybe someone else can answer that. As far as when it ends, the event is officially over the following monday. People start to leave on Saturday before the man burns and there are still people leaving Tuesday after the event.

Dr. Pyro wrote:Also if I may add, the Barbie Death Village Hotel Deal will be posted here hopefully by the end of the week. We're negotiating to have the rooms at the Sands begin around $27 (up to four people in a room) and we're seeing if we can get the weekend rate lower than last year. Won't know for sure, but for a lousy $27 (give or take) having a nice night's rest, final shower, use of the ice machines (you can load up $27 worth of ice which you're going to need in any event), sauna, Jacuzzi, steam bath, swimming pool...well, it sounds like you're being penny-wise and pound-foolish. And Vulture Chow's assessment I think is also spot on. Worth thinking about for sure.

How do I keep tabs on this because this would be well worth it if do-able.

I will post it under it's own thread as soon as I have all of the details finalized. Look for it in the next few days.

Another thing you might look into is flying into Sacramento and driving up from there. The Playa is only about 5 hours from Sacramento. (in normal traffic) There are burner friendly car rental places here in the area.